Winter Blast '07

I haven't posted in a while so I will fill you all in on what has been going on around the Short house.

We are finally thawing out here in Oklahoma. We were hit with a terrible ice storm last week. The power was out from Sunday through Wednesday night at our house. Sadly, there are still a bunch of people without power. We stayed cuddled up by the fire until bedtime each night then slept under a ton of blankets. I am thankful that I am not a pioneer woman. I was not cut out for living in the dark. We would go to bed at 8pm because there was nothing to do. We popped popcorn on the gas stove and played sorry but we had a hard time telling the difference between green and blue. During the days the kids and I hung out with my parents or my sweet friend Lisa, who took us in and fed us and let me take a shower. We lost part of our bradford pear tree and our oak in the front yard now looks like a Charlie Brown tree. The minamal damage we had was nothing compared to what others have suffered. It is an amazing sight to see those old trees just snapped in half because of an inch of ice.

Nathan celebrated his 7th birthday during the ice storm. We had to change plans because "chuckie cheese" was out of power. He was a great sport about having to make a change and he had a great time. I can't believe he is 7! TIme is flying by.

My sweet precious Mamma Bear passed away on Dec. 13. She was 92 years old and had lived a long fruitful life. We will all miss her tremondously but we have a peace that she is with her heavenly father. There is going to be a memorial service for her in Valdosta, Georgia in January. I am going to fly down there with my sister, Kim.

Next, in the news: My mom just found out she is having heart surgery on Friday. Apparently, she had suffered a heart attack and never knew it. Please remember her in your prayers, this has been a hard week for her with the loss of her mom and her health.

I have being seeing a dermatologist for the past 2 months because of some strange bumps on my head and face and a suspicious mole on my tummy. So today, I go to get stitches out of my stomach and a cyst off my face and I had to bring both kids with me because they had eye doctor appts. right afterward. Nathan gave a play by play of everything the dr. was doing, "Mom, they are sticking a needle in you. Does that hurt? It looks like a fish hook mommy. Ohh, there is blood. Don't worry mom, the Lord is with you!" He kept telling me the last part over and over in the most sweet and tender way. It totally melted my heart and I was trying not to laugh so my nose wouldn't get cut. I have a single stitch hanging out by the side of my nose. Can you imagine how attractive it looks. Several people at the YMCA tonight, were like, "you have something next to your nose." Jarrett just kept telling them it was a buger. Nice.

I got the pathology report back on the mole on my stomach and it was severly dysplastic which he told me is on its way to skin cancer. Scary. I feel very thankful to the Lord for taking care of this and getting it off of me. I will have to be checked every year now because of this bad mole and we have a family history of melanoma. It has left a terrible scar and every time I look at that I will be reminded of why I should be more careful in the sun. I rarely use sun screen and I think I look better when I am tan. No more, just get used to really pale Kathy. It is not worth dying over a stupid mole or a temporary tan! My plea is for all of you to get all of your body checked out and get anything wierd off of you. It is such a deadly cancer yet it is so preventable and treatable if caught early. Thank you Stephanie for insisting I see a dermatologist, even though it took me a year to do so. You may have saved my life.